Wicked Man's Rest
by I-Can-Spell-Confusion-With-A-K
Summary: Cassandra isn't the person you would expect to live through the zombie apocalypse. Daryl isn't the the person you would expect to care. Turns out there's more than one type of survivor. The story of a grad student from Harvard, a little girl with nowhere to go, and a man with more demons than even the other members of his group have guessed. Daryl/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Hello all! So I just finished watching season 2 and I just couldn't resist trying my hand at a Daryl/OC story. I know, I know there are a lot of them (trust me I read most of them) but I really wanted to try my hand at it and bring something a little different to it. Basically, I wanted to try to write a heroine that somehow survived so far in the crazy walker world without also being a crazy skilled gun wielding bad ass chick (not that I don't love those). Expect a slow build between the two, trying to keep Daryl as in character as possible. So here we go, here's the first chapter. Daryl will appear soon I promise! Let me know what you think and if I should continue. **_  
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_Tap…Tap…Tap_

Cassandra tapped her pen against her desk impatiently. She was about a third of the way through the first draft of her thesis and she was completely blocked. Usually putting her laptop aside and jotting down a line or two by hand was enough to get her brain working again but today it just wasn't cutting it.

It probably had something to do with all of the craziness going on outside the walls of her dorm room. A week ago there had been a story on the news about some new kind of virus that had been documented in New York. Since then it had dominated the news programs every night, listing a strange range of symptoms from extremely high fever all the way to aggressive and violent behavior.

It wasn't that she and her classmates weren't concerned about the rapidly spreading outbreak; it was just that it all seemed very far away from their lives. There hadn't been any cases reported in Boston or Cambridge and everything coming out of Washington was saying that a vaccine was in the process of being synthesized.

"_My theory is that it's a bunch of people tripping on bath salts," her friend Bryan had joked a few days ago as he cooked Raman in the dorm's common kitchen. _

"_Bath salts aren't contagious," her roommate Jessica pointed out tossing a bag of chips across the countertop into Cassandra's waiting arms. "It's probably a mutated form of the bird flu."_

"_Well, I don't care what it is unless it gets me an extension on O'Brian's paper," Cassandra joked, pouring the chips in to a bowel. _

"_True that," Bryan agreed, much to the girls' amusement. _

_Their eyes met over the countertop and both burst out laughing. _

"_Don't ever say that again," Cassandra managed to get out between bouts of laughter. _

Cassandra shook herself out of her memories and looked back down at the blank paper in front of her with a sigh. Her mind was still completely blank.

"Great," Cassandra muttered, resuming her pen tapping.

_Tap…Tap…BANG_

Cassandra jumped at the sudden loud noise and dropped her pen watching it roll away and disappear under her bed.

"And this day just keeps getting better," She mumbled to herself as she rose to answer the door having deduced that a knock was the source of the noise.

The door swung open before she could twist the knob revealing a panicked looking Jessica.

"Jess, what's wrong?" Cassandra asked, one hand going out automatically to rest on her friend's shoulder.

"It's here," Jessica said, her voice breathy as though she had run all the way there.

"What's here?" Cassandra heard doors slamming and saw other students from her floor spilling out into the hallway.

"The virus," Jessica answered sharply, her voice trembling. "They're moving everyone to the south and east auditoriums. Come on."

Her hand shot out and yanked Cassandra forward, knocking her off balance and almost knocking her off her feet.

"Jesus, Jess, hold on! Why would they move all the students to the auditoriums?" Cassandra felt completely out of her depth and it wasn't a feeling she enjoyed, nor was the fear that was starting to creep up on her.

"Not just the students," Jessica stopped trying to pull Cassandra with her long enough to look her friend directly in the eyes. "_Everybody_. The government's declared it an official shelter, everybody who's close enough to try is supposed to get here, we have to go _now_."

Cassandra allowed herself to be tugged after her friend into the sea of people flooding down the dorm's hallway but she still couldn't process what was happening.

This just didn't make any _sense. _

If the virus had spread to Cambridge the most logical thing to do was tell people to stay in their homes, do their best to avoid contact with others to restrict the spread of the disease. It made no sense at all to round everyone up in one place. All it would take is one person who had come in contact with the infected and everyone would get it.

They had reached the east auditorium and filed in behind a rush of other people. Some seemed as afraid as Jessica while others still seemed to think it was all a big joke. Cassandra didn't know what she thought, not anymore.

The inside of the auditorium was awash with chaos. It was already packed so tightly with people that Cassandra felt a bit lightheaded as she allowed Jessica to elbow their way towards the center of the room. Claustrophobia was a fear that Cassandra had dealt with all her life, crowded spaces, elevators all just a panic attack waiting to happen.

"Jess, Cassandra!" Bryan's familiar voice rang out over the melee and Cassandra whipped her head around relieved to see her friend rushing toward them.

"Bryan, this is crazy," She told him struggling to keep her voice calm. "Why would they gather us all together like this if there's been an outbreak here? Contain the situation, that's disease control 101…"

She trailed off at the look on Bryan's face.

"You don't get it," He shook his head continuously as though he couldn't believe what he was saying. "I _saw_ one. They're not trying to contain the outbreak, they're trying to protect people from _them_, the infected. The National Guard is all around the perimeter but I give them about ten minutes before they're overrun, these things…I don't…we've got to make a run for it."

"What?" Jessica's voice cracked and she was noticeably shaking now. "No, we have to stay here. The military can handle this, we're safe in here."

"Have you guys lost your minds?" Cassandra blurted, nearly having to shout now to be heard only a few feet away. "They're just people, _sick_ people, even if it does make them more aggressive they're not going to get by the National Guard!"

"Listen to me, guys," Bryan gripped each girl by the shoulder. "Those are not people, the National Guard is not going to stand a chance, and we are going to die if we don't get out of here."

It was ludicrous. Ridiculous. The stupidest, straight out of a bad horror movie speech she'd ever heard. And she believed it. Every word.

Bryan started to guide the girls toward one of the rear exits when a scream broke out from the far corner of the auditorium. Cassandra whipped her head around straining to find the source of the sound but it was hopeless. One scream quickly became a mind numbing array of screams, the kind you hear and then finally understand what "blood curdling" really means.

The crowd surged forward and then back again as people struggled to get away from whatever was happening. Cassandra felt Bryan's grip on her loosen and then give completely and faster than she would have believed it possible she'd lost sight of both him and Jessica.

"Bryan!" She called out, desperation lacing her voice. "Jessica!"

The constant pressure from the sea of bodies surrounding her and the incessant soundtrack of screams had panic surging through Cassandra's body. The urge to vomit was strong and the urge to pass out was even stronger.

Just when Cassandra had started to believe that blacking out was inevitable she spotted the bleachers on the far side of the auditorium. The retracting bleachers had been pulled in almost flush with the wall in order to make room for the crowd of people but there were tiny cracks between them that might serve as footholds and the narrow landing at the top looked just wide enough for a person to stand on.

Without further thought Cassandra gathered all of her strength and pushed her way towards the bleachers. For every step she was able to struggle forward it felt as though she was knocked back two but fear and panic kept her moving. Finally she reached the edge of the room and immediately started trying to scale the bleachers.

The cracks between the bleachers were barely wide enough for her to get her fingers in and the rubber soles of her sneakers constantly slipped leaving her clinging on by fingernails as she regained her balance. Her fingers were bloody by the time she reached the top and it took every bit of her strength to haul her body up and over the edge.

There wasn't room for her to lay her entire body on the top so she dangled one leg over the edge as she caught her breath. Finally out of her claustrophobic nightmare, she gathered herself enough to look down and take in the scene below her immediately wishing she hadn't.

She saw them. Whatever _they_ were, because they most certainly weren't human.

She saw one take down a girl, it's teeth latched around her throat. She saw a pack of them literally tearing a man apart. There were at least fifty of them, spread out throughout the crowd, killing, _eating_, everyone in sight. Someone had finally gotten one of the exits open but people were crushing each other trying to get out. A few had caught on to the same idea of climbing that Cassandra had but it was too late. One man made it up two bleachers before he was yanked down by his foot screaming and promptly silenced, the blood splatter nearly reaching her perch.

Cassandra couldn't process what she was watching. It was a zombie movie. She was _living_ a zombie movie. This couldn't be happening. It was too awful to comprehend.

"Help my daughter, help her, someone help her, please, help my daughter!"

Cassandra wasn't sure why one woman's screaming in particular stood out to her over all of the chaos but she followed the sound to its source. The woman was towards the back of the throng of people trying to make it out of the exit but she was too far back, she wasn't going to make it.

"God, no," Cassandra's traumatized brain was able to think only those two words as she took in what the woman had clutched in her arms.

A little girl, probably three years old, bawling, clutching at her mother as though she could protect her.

The woman's gaze somehow found Cassandra and her eyes took on a strange, determined look. She shoved her way towards the bleachers and shouted up at Cassandra who was trying desperately to look anywhere else.

"Take her," The woman shouted lifting the child above her head as high as she could manage, the girl still screaming her head off. "You have to take her, take her and get out."

I can't. That's what Cassandra was thinking, what she wanted to say. She was just a child herself, really, despite being 25 and a grad student…in this moment, she was a child.

She didn't say that though. Instead some deeper instinct took over and almost of their own free will her hands began pulling her body around slightly so she could get a better angle. She reached down with one hand, fingers stretching out until they could wrap around the little girl's wrist. She tried to yank the girl upward but didn't have the strength and almost lost her grip on the bleachers.

"Again!" The woman cried, desperation but also determination clear in the gaze that locked with Cassandra's.

Cassandra adjusted her grip on the girl's wrist and yanked again. This time the woman shoved the girl upward at the same time and Cassandra was able to drag the girl over the edge and behind her on the narrow plank.

She glanced back down planning to help the woman up as well, but the sight that greeted her was one of those things dragging the woman away. Cassandra's eyes crashed shut, her brain refusing to process the image it was seeing.

"Momma, Momma, Momma…" The little girl's cries dragged Cassandra out of her own mind. She had to get the girl out.

Cassandra forced her aching body into a crouching position, looking over her shoulder and trying her best to look friendly, knowing she was failing miserably.

"Sweetie, you have to get on my back, ok?"

The girl merely continued chanting, "Momma, momma, momma…"

"That's right," Cassandra answered, her throat choking on the words. "We're going to go find your Momma."

These words seemed to break through to the girl and she scooted over and wrapped her arms around Cassandra's neck. Cassandra crawled forward slowly trying to block out the continuing screams. It seemed like it took forever but it she knew it could only have been a couple of minutes before she reached a window. She beat her arm against it until it shattered, not sure where she had found the strength not sure how the girl managed to avoid being cut by the glass that had found it's way deep inside Cassandra's arm. Ignoring the searing pain, Cassandra hauled herself and her passenger through the window thanking a god she didn't really believe in that the window led to a sloping roof which allowed her to slide down to another level of roof, this one flat and within jumping distance to the ground.

Cassandra managed to land feet first, her knees protesting loudly at the sharp impact but her cargo seemed unharmed. Moans brought her head snapping up in horror as she realized those things were out here too, though not as many as had been gathered in the auditorium.

Cassandra felt a strange sense of calm settle over her, knowing somewhere in the back of her mind that she was most likely going into shock.

"Ok," She breathed out one, twice, one deep breath in and then she was ready, as ready as she ever would be. "We go on three."

_One_

_Keep breathing, don't look back._

_Two_

_Keep breathing, don't look back._

_Three_

_Go._


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Hello again! I had every intention of uploading this a couple of days ago but things got crazy with school and work and I didn't get the time to finish it off. A couple of things, I went back to the first chapter and changed Cassandra's age from 28 to 25. Not a huge deal, but just so you know. Also, Daryl shows up in the next chapter which I am already working on. I know it's hard to be patient for our favorite good old boy to make his appearance but I really wanted to establish who Cassandra is and how she's been surviving before I shoved her in with characters we already know. Is anybody else as excited as I am for season 3 tomorrow!?**

It was all kind of a blur after that.

Cassandra remembered sprinting full out between buildings, cutting across a parking lot, ducking in between cars when the moans got too close. At some point she had swung the little girl off of her back and around to her front, clutching the girl's body awkwardly to her chest struggling to maintain her grip despite the fact that her body was drenched in sweat.

There was another blank spot in her memory at that point but somehow she knew they'd ended up in a car with a girl Cassandra vaguely knew as one of Jessica's fellow medical student's although she didn't remember her name before being told hours later that it was Lacey. Together they'd sped off of the Harvard campus, Lacey jerking the wheel frequently to avoid hitting either the creatures or the people who were darting in and out of the road.

Their original plan had been to head towards Boston. Cassandra's mother would be there and it stood to reason that if the government did have any kind of a defense mounted it would be strongest in the city.

It wasn't long before Cassandra began to doubt this strategy though, reason seeping in through her panic. A city might mean more security but it also meant more _people_, and in this case more people almost certainly meant more infected. Not to mention that even a strong military presence clearly didn't mean much, look at how fast the National Guard had been overrun in Cambridge.

She'd done her best to keep the fear out of her voice and reason with Lacey but it had quickly escalated into both girls shouting through tears, the toddler Cassandra still clutched to her lap screaming over them both.

"I'm going to Boston," Lacey had finally cut her off, her voice shaking and bordering on hysterical. "We can't do this on our own, we have to get help, I'm going!"

"Then let us out," Cassandra had hardly been able to believe the words as they came out of her mouth, hearing them as though through a fog from very far away.

Lacey complied, pulling over to the side of the highway, cars whizzing by frantically as others rushed toward Boston. Cassandra had stumbled out of the car in a haze and had barely cleared the vehicle before Lacey was speeding away. She couldn't really blame her. The world had gone to hell and there was no time to second-guess your decisions.

You just had to do decide and _go_ because standing still was suicide.

A few weeks later Cassandra found herself perched on top of an old Ford pick-up truck, staring off into the woods that bordered the road somewhere in Georgia. The little girl, who hadn't spoken a word since chanting "momma" in the auditorium, was asleep in the cab below her.

Cassandra heard a soft whimper from the girl and froze, listening hard for any signs of distress. A soft sigh was the only additional sound from the girl's sleeping area and she allowed herself to relax slightly. She had no idea what the girl's name was and so far all attempts to coax it, or anything, out of her had failed miserably. She'd taken to calling her Emma simply to have _something_ to say when those big blue eyes were looking up at her full of fear and confusion. Cassandra didn't know why she wasn't speaking, it wasn't like she had any experience with kids. She worried almost constantly that Emma had been so traumatized by her encounters with the zombies and losing her mother that they had destroyed something vital in the girl's mind.

To be honest, of all the things Cassandra worried about constantly, Emma's mental state was one of the less pressing.

Ever since Lacey had left them on the side of the road Cassandra and Emma had bounced from group to group, teaming up with anyone they encountered who seemed remotely trustworthy. She'd tried to limit their strategy to joining up with groups of people that included other women and children thinking that would probably lower their chances of being taken advantage of. They never stayed with one group long, moving on as soon as someone made a decision that she disagreed with. She never got too close to any of them, never committed herself to being indispensable to anyone's survival but her own and Emma's. They were encountering less and less people as the days wore on and Cassandra tried hard not to think about what that meant.

The truck that was currently their home she'd picked up only the day before. Previously she'd hitched rides but yesterday they'd hit a roadblock of cars that stretched for miles. While some of the others had debated what to do, Cassandra had asked one of the other women to watch Emma and gone exploring as far she dared. She'd found the truck and decided with its sturdy design and lack of dead bodies residing inside that it was as good a car to commandeer as any. She'd managed to get it turned around and woven back through the other cars just in time to attend the meeting where the group finally decided on backtracking to DC.

Cassandra had known right then it was time to move on. They'd already tried to get into Washington about a week ago, but the city had more roadblocks than any other place they'd encountered. All of the barricades, tanks and barbed wire fences hadn't yielded a single living person though and she no longer held out hope that the government was still functioning with a waiting vaccine.

She no longer held out much hope at all.

Despite being told she was crazy for heading out on her own, Cassandra had packed up a few supplies for herself and Emma and taken off in the opposite direction from everyone else. She hadn't been able to convince them to part with one of their guns, though she supposed she didn't really know what to do with one anyway other than pull the trigger and pray.

She'd seen plenty of people do that in the last few weeks and most of them weren't still around.

Cassandra shuddered at the thought, pulling the sleeves of her oversized sweatshirt down over her arms and tucking herself into a tighter ball as though she could banish the cold and her memories at the same time.

The truth was that despite the fact she'd purposefully kept herself and Emma from becoming too ingrained in any one group they'd traveled with that didn't make her immune to the horror of seeing people she knew torn apart right in front of her. There were just so many of these things now everyday they _didn't_ see someone killed was a miracle. As far as she could tell she was still alive due mostly to good luck.

She hadn't climbed those bleachers back at Harvard because of survival strategy, she'd done it because she was weak and afraid, even before the risen dead had burst in to kill them all. She hadn't made it out of Cambridge because she had a get away car waiting, she'd just randomly run into Lacey while running around with no clear purpose. And she most certainly hadn't survived their numerous encounters with the zombies since then because of any particular skill, a fact a voice in the back of her mind constantly reminded her of. She just ran when she saw them coming and so far she'd had enough dumb luck to run in the right direction.

There was no telling how long that dumb luck might last but she didn't really think much of the odds.

Cassandra's eyes burned in the corners and for a moment she thought she was going to cry but no tears came. She raised her sleeve-covered hand and wiped briskly at her eyes anyway though it did little to calm the prickly sensation. She thought she might have been too dehydrated to cry after giving Emma her share of their last bottle of water earlier but it also occurred to her that she probably just didn't have any tears left anyway. Her mind may not have adjusted to living in the horrors of the new world but her body was getting there.

Her formerly pleasantly round face already had taken on sharper angles and her size 8 jeans were gapping at the waist. She'd always been so proud of her long blonde hair, loved the way it set off her brown eyes. Now she tried to avoid all reflective surfaces but she'd seen enough.

She'd done her best to try to make sure that Emma didn't feel the pinch of their limited supplies but there was only so much she could do. Often the little girl refused to eat what Cassandra was able to find anyway, and no amount of coaxing from the older girl seemed to make much of a difference. As far as she could tell the little girl wasn't physically showing any signs of malnutrition. Her face still had all of its baby roundness, her blue eyes were still bright and her soft brown curls hardly even looked dirty.

Cassandra settled in, gathering her limbs even closer to her body and prepared to wait out the night. Waiting for morning or an end to all this, which ever came first.

Shortly after dawn Cassandra slowly stretched out her frozen limbs, the ache in her joints drawing a low groan from her that she immediately tried to stifle. She rose to her feet on top of the truck and did a slow rotation watching for any sign of movement. Nothing. As far as she could see was nothing but abandoned cars on one side and trees on the other.

She slid down onto the hood of the truck and then hopped lightly down to the ground. She knew that she needed to try to scavenge supplies from the other vehicles and then get them as far away from this graveyard as possible. They were sitting ducks if they hung out there much longer. Her heart clenched at the thought of leaving Emma alone though, even for a few moments. She didn't really have any choice. If she woke the girl and took her with her and they did run into any trouble there was little chance that Cassandra would be able to keep the girl alive and fight off the attack at the same time.

Cassandra brushed her hair out of her face and gripped her temple as the start of a horrific headache began to creep up on her.

If she was honest with herself she knew that if she ran into trouble there was little enough hope of her fighting off an attack even if she only had to worry about herself. That kind of thinking may have been honest but it definitely wasn't helpful so Cassandra forced herself to push it aside.

She peeked into the window of the truck and saw that Emma was mercifully still asleep. Doing her best to clamp down on her guilt Cassandra made sure the doors were locked and swung a backpack she'd found a couple of weeks ago over her shoulder. She had taken about half a step away from the truck when an awful thought stopped her in her tracks.

What if she never came back and Emma starved to death in that truck? It was better than letting the girl become one of those things but it was still enough to bring the familiar burning sensation back to Cassandra's eyes.

She swung the backpack down over her shoulder and onto the ground. She dug around inside for a few minutes before locating half a sheet of paper and a black sharpie. She quickly scrawled out a note, her hand shaking fiercely.

**Little girl inside. **

**Not infected. **

**Please take care of her. **

Cassandra capped the sharpie and tossed it back into her backpack before placing the note under the windshield wiper on the truck. She could hardly believe that the last time she'd had occasion to write something down was that last day in Cambridge, trying to work on her thesis.

God, for years her life had been about being a student, academics, the written word.

Lot of good all that education was doing her now. Lot of good anything was doing her now.

Sparing one last worried glance for the little girl sleeping in the truck, Cassandra forced herself to walk in the other direction, towards food, towards hope, or more likely towards an incredibly painful death.

Cassandra sighed.

Well, at least she was starting the day optimistically.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: I can't believe I'm posting two chapters in one day! In my defense, there was a Walking Dead marathon on AMC today, what else was I going to do but watch it and write while I had Daryl's voice in my ears for inspiration? So I hope you enjoy his introduction, I think it's interesting at least! Reviews are much appreciated. Also...SEASON 3 TOMORROW!**

Cassandra straightened from her position bent over a car's open trunk, doing her best to stretch out the kinks in her back. She'd been at the search for supplies for about an hour and so far she wasn't coming up with much. She'd managed to get a few changes of clothes for herself and Emma, a few bottles of water and some trail mix but that was about it.

Either too many other survivors had already scavenged this stretch of highway, or more likely the poor souls that had died here hadn't taken much with them in the first place. Why should they have? All the radio broadcasts had promised that Atlanta and several other cities would be safe zones with all the protection, shelter and food anyone could need.

Things hadn't quite turned out that way.

She hadn't even contemplated heading into the city even though from a map she'd found she realized she was probably just outside the Atlanta city limits. Too close. If Washington DC had lost control of its barricades and been over run what chance did Atlanta have? No, she was willing to bet it was crawling with zombies and she didn't intend to find out first hand.

Cassandra reached up and massaged her aching shoulder absentmindedly trying to decide if she should give up and head back for Emma. She didn't want to come back so empty handed but she wasn't comfortable leaving her alone for much longer either. A crying little girl alone was probably like Christmas morning for a hungry zombie and she wasn't willing to bet Emma's safety on the belief that they would have a hard time getting past the truck's lock.

She was just about to head out when something caught her eye. Buried under some clothes in the open suitcase Cassandra had just been rifling though was the shiny corner of some kind of wrapper.

Hope giving her actions a frenzied quality, she dove her hands into the suitcase tossing clothes out of the way. A moment later the jackpot was revealed and Cassandra had to literally cover her mouth to stop a cry of joy from escaping. At the bottom of the suitcase was a large pile of nutrition bars, the real survival nut kind that had enough calories to substitute for an entire meal. There were enough there to keep Cassandra and Emma going for a couple of weeks even if she didn't find anything else.

Cassandra quickly shoveled the nutrition bars into her backpack and was just swinging it back onto her shoulder when the sharp sound of a car horn rang out breaking the utter silence.

She instantly dropped towards the ground, one hand going out to steady herself against the car, her heart instantly hammering in her chest. It took a few seconds for her rational mind to kick in and insist that the sound had actually come from a fair distance away. In fact, she wasn't sure she would have heard it at all if the world hadn't been so eerily quite these days. If a walker had caused the horn to sound, it wasn't right around the corner waiting to snatch her.

Cassandra felt relieved for a split second before an even deeper sense of dread settled over her.

"Emma!" She choked out rising unsteadily to her feet. She didn't know if she was afraid a walker near Emma had set off the car horn or if she was afraid that Emma herself had stumbled into the truck's horn and was at this moment drawing zombies. Either way, she just knew she had to get back to the little girl as quickly as possible.

Cassandra hitched the strap of her backpack higher on her shoulder and prepared to take off in the direction she'd come from. The next thing she knew she was back on the ground, her vision spinning and a searing pain radiating out from the back of her head.

"Ugh," She moaned, her thoughts cloudy as a warm sensation that in retrospect was probably blood spread across her skull.

Before she had time to process what had happened she felt a sharp tug on her backpack that left her neck snapping backwards. The force was sufficient to clear Cassandra's mind enough to realize that someone was trying to take her supplies. She rolled hard to the right and out of the grip of her attacker. She had just enough time to get a glimpse of a man, big, dirty, and desperate looking before he was on her again.

"Just give me the backpack," He grunted jerking her body off of the ground by one strap of the backpack and slamming her back into the ground.

Despite the fact that she was seeing stars by this point, Cassandra lashed out with her hands and feet striking at the man anywhere she could. She felt one foot connect hard with his stomach and his weigh disappeared from her for a second. She seized the moment and scooted backwards a few inches struggling to get back to her feet. Before she could the man was back.

"You stupid, bitch," He growled, grabbing Cassandra by her hair and hauling her back.

"Ahhh!" Cassandra screamed despite all of her previous effort to keep quiet and not draw any zombies.

"Shut up!" The man used the back of his free hand to strike her across the face, a stinging force that sent her head snapping the other direction, her cheek scraping against the pavement.

She groaned and tried to kick him again but this time he was able to dodge her flailing feet. In desperation she managed to get one arm free and reached up and dug her fingernails into the skin of his cheek earning her a shriek of pain from the man. He thrashed in her grip and one of his elbows caught her in the eye sending her reeling back and causing her to loose her grip on his face.

The man's eyes filled with rage and she had no doubt that he now intended to kill her. She willed herself to close her eyes so she at least wouldn't have to see the fatal blow coming even as she continued to thrash pointlessly trying to pummel him with her weakened limbs.

Suddenly the weight of the man was gone and Cassandra's eyes snapped open in disbelief. The man was on the ground and another man, this one leaner and more muscular, was punching him. It took two before her attacked lay slumped on the ground, clearly unconscious.

"Well, that didn't take much ya son of a bitch," The other man drawled in a thick Georgia accent, shaking out the hand he had just pummeled her attacker with.

He glanced over at Cassandra but didn't seem particularly rushed to either find out if she was ok or finish the job the other man had started. Instead he scooped up the objects he must have dropped a moment before, a small pack and a crossbow that looked pretty deadly and stood slowly. He gave the man on the ground a light kick and spit on the ground next to his prone form before finally turning to face her.

Cassandra wanted to be on her feet by this point, ready to fend off a new attack if it came to that. Unfortunately she wasn't sure her legs would hold her at this point and her head was still swimming from the multiple blows it had taken. Instead she settled for scooting back a couple of feet and getting her hands under her in case she needed to try to push herself to a standing position quickly.

Her caution seemed to amuse him and he chuckled a bit as he looked down at her.

"Yer welcome," He finally said, his tone mocking. "In case that stupid look on yer face is actually supposed to mean thank you."

She didn't say anything. She couldn't quite figure out if she should running from this guy or not but if recent experience was anything to judge by this apocalypse hadn't been particularly great for bringing out the kindness of others.

"Ya know, thank you? That's what you say when somebody saves your ass," The man continued.

"Thanks," Cassandra felt the word slip from between her lips against her will, a habit of politeness ingrained in her from long before all this craziness had happened.

"Well, ya gonna get up?" He asked, seemingly reaching the point of exasperation with her hesitance. He held out a hand and Cassandra cautiously took it. He hauled her to her feet quickly without any gentleness and she had to struggle to keep her balance. Without realizing what she was doing she threw one hand out and gripped the man's arm to keep herself steady.

His hand came down over hers and for a second she thought he was helping to steady her. That illusion was shattered quickly as he used his grip to take advantage of her unsteadiness and yank one of her arms around behind her back yanking her flush against him.

Before she had fully realized what had happened he was using his other hand to yank her backpack down her free arm. He quickly released her other arm and shoved her forward and out of the bag. By the time she'd managed to find her balance and spin around he was already rifling through it.

"What are you doing?" Cassandra raged, rushing forward only to stop in her tracks as he lazily drew a gun from the waist of his pants and pointed it in her direction.

"Shopping," He said without looking up as he continued to rifle through the bag.

Cassandra was considering making a dive for his gun when he finished dumping nutrition bars into his own pack and had kicked her backpack aside.

"You can't just steal from me, I need that food!" Cassandra spat, the injustice of this entire new world where a rescuer was really just another enemy making her sick to her stomach.

"I ain't stealin'," The man walked toward her, drawing a deadly looking knife from somewhere. Cassandra's blood ran cold at the sight of the blade but he surprised her by flipping it around and holding it out to her. "I'm tradin'."

Cassandra couldn't fully comprehend what he was thinking but she wasn't about to let that stop herself from taking the knife. Her hand darted out and gripped the handle prepared to fight him for it but to her surprise he let it go freely.

She immediately pointed the knife at him as menacingly as possible but he just rolled his eyes and took a step closer. He grabbed her hand and before she could decide if she really was capable of stabbing him or not he twisted the knife slightly in her grip and then stepped away again.

"Hold it like that and ya might actually have a chance of doin' some damage," He told her like his impromptu knife lesson was the most natural thing in the world. "Don't know what kinda idiot goes walkin' around out here without a weapon, ya got a death wish or somethin'?"

"Wait, you're giving this to me?" She asked incredulously as he just looked at her as though she were stupid. "But you're taking my food? Why'd you bother stopping him then?" She gestured wildly towards the man on the ground.

His eyes went cold and Cassandra gripped the knife a little bit tighter.

"Listen up, bitch," He jabbed his finger angrily in her direction. "I ain't in the business of beatin' up women, but I'll tell ya what business I am in, surviving. I wasted time I coulda been hunting savin' your dumb ass so I took your food. That's a fairer trade than anybody else is gonna give you, so you best shut your mouth."

He glanced upward as though gathering himself but she soon realized he was actually checking the position of the sun.

"I suggest ya get out of here, all that screamin' you did bound to have attracted some walkers," He told her already moving off towards the boundary of the woods. "But hey, it's your funeral."

And just like that he was gone, disappearing into the woods as quickly and as silently as he'd come.

Cassandra stood there for a moment staring down at the knife in her hand dumbfounded. Finally she gathered herself enough to walk over to her discarded backpack and pick it up prepared for the depressing lightness of an empty bag. She almost dropped it when she felt how heavy it still was.

Glancing inside disbelievingly, Cassandra saw that not only had he left her all the water, clothes and trail mix but he'd left about half of the nutrition bars as well. She zipped the bag and threw it over her shoulder heading off at a jog in the direction of the truck and Emma.

She wished for a fleeting moment that she knew what the man's name was. He was a crazy asshole but he was also the only person she'd met since all of this began that had surprised her at all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Well, this took me longer than I meant to! Like our dear, Cassandra, I too am a busy grad student (although not at Harvard, she's smarter than me people :p ). I'm also working and trying to keep the rest of my life together, but I really want to keep this story moving so I'll do my best! Anyway, when we left our heroine had just been saved by our favorite redneck. I miss him already...but he will soon be here permanently, I promise! A quick note, the book cover I made for this story is supposed to show Cassandra right after the fight that Daryl rescued her from so check that out. I had a little too much fun beating up the girl for that picture (only in a photoshop kind of way lol). Thanks so much to everyone that has reviewed so far. The next chapter is when things should start to get really interesting and I'm working on it now so keep an eye out for that. Let me know what you think of this one! Enjoy. : )**

By the time Cassandra made it back to the truck where she'd left Emma there wasn't an inch of her body that didn't ache. Her head was still spinning from the blows she'd sustained and she could feel herself limping slightly since putting her full weight on her right foot sent an excruciating blast of pain radiating up her leg.

All of these ailments disappeared from her mind though when she peered anxiously into the window and saw Emma safe and sound inside, not crying but simply staring off into space. Cassandra was slightly disturbed that Emma seemed so out of it but that couldn't temper her relief and joy at seeing the girl was physically ok.

Her hands shook as she inserted the key into the door and wrenched it open, immediately reaching for the little girl inside.

"Emma, I'm back," Cassandra said, doing her best to keep her voice soft and comforting.

The girl didn't react until the older girl's hands actually touched her and then she flinched away, her mournful blue eyes lazily latching onto Cassandra's face.

"Emma," She tried again, reaching out slowly. "It's me, it's Cassandra. It's ok. I'm so sorry I had to leave, but I'm back now, see?"

If the girl did see she gave no sign of it. She did allow Cassandra to wrap her arms around her, though she made no move to hug her back.

Cassandra buried her face in the girl's soft curls and struggled to hold back the rush of emotions that threatened to break free. It was finally hitting her that she'd come very close to dying today. That coupled with Emma's continued state of detachment was threatening to overwhelm her. She wanted to do right by the little girl. She wanted to keep her alive, to keep them _both_ alive. It was just so hard. If the dead didn't murder you the living seemed all too eager to do the job.

Not _all_ the living.

The thought came to Cassandra unbidden and she clutched Emma closer to her. Yes, there was the case of the mystery man who had saved her life, stolen from her, given her a weapon and then vanished without leaving so much as a name behind. It wasn't like she was expecting a formal introduction complete with a handshake and how do you dos, the situation was a little too menacing for that. It was just that Cassandra was so used to being alone with Emma, alone with the _silence_, now that part of her had been desperate to cling to the human interaction he'd offered. True, she'd traveled with others but she hadn't had much more than surface dealings with them, she'd made it a point not to.

The truth was that for all his asshole comments and brutish ways, the mystery man had given her the first _real _conversation she'd had since all of this started.

"Scoot over, sweetie," Cassandra told her small companion, slipping her backpack off and placing it on the floor of the cab. Finally Cassandra reached out and gently placed the girl further over on the seat herself when she showed no signs of understanding the request.

Cassandra slid into the cab beside Emma, and closed the door behind her as quietly as possible.

"Ahhhh," She let out a whoosh of relieved breath as her back made contact with the relatively comfortable seat. "That's better, huh?" She glanced over at Emma out of habit even though she didn't really expect a response.

Her expectations were confirmed when Emma just continued to stare at nothing in particular. Cassandra sighed and reached gingerly for the backpack and pulled out a bottle of water and a nutrition bar.

"Look what I've got, Emma," she unscrewed the water bottle and reached out to gently grasp the little girl's chin. She carefully tugged until Emma turned towards her and then tipped the bottle over the little girl's lips. The first few drops ran down the girl's chin without reaction but then her mouth opened and she gulped greedily as Cassandra poured the liquid down Emma's parched throat.

"That's it, sweetheart, careful, don't choke," Cassandra cautioned as Emma let out a delicate little cough before closing her mouth and letting the water run down her chin again.

Cassandra quickly tipped the bottle back up trying to keep as much as possible from spilling. She put it to her own lips and quickly downed the water that remained in the bottle, relishing the feel of the soothing liquid. It felt as though she hadn't had anything to drink in weeks even though she knew it had only been a little over a day. She thought wistfully of the drinking fountain in her dorm hallway and the fully stocked mini-fridge she'd had back at Harvard before forcing herself to return to the task at the hand.

She unwrapped the nutrition bar, breaking off a small piece and holding it out towards Emma, hoping against the odds that the girl would show interest in it. When she failed to get a reaction she reached over and practically shoved a piece into the girl's little fist. Emma didn't react at first but after a moment her eyes flicked slowly over in Cassandra's direction.

Encouraged, Cassandra broke off another piece and very slowly raised it to her own lips, placing it in her mouth and chewing enthusiastically.

"Mmmm, yummy," She wished she was a better actor. The nutrition bar wasn't even close to the worst tasting thing she'd had to eat since all of this started, but it wasn't exactly a nice greasy slice of pizza either.

Emma watched Cassandra chewing before slowly raising her own piece and placing it in her mouth.

Cassandra wanted to cheer out loud but instead she quickly broke off another piece and handed it to Emma, feeling like this small success was worth everything that she'd gone through that day. Well, almost.

Together the girls finished the nutrition bar, Cassandra giving Emma a bit more than half. She wanted to open another one but she knew she had to ration them extremely cautiously. Instead she offered Emma a handful of the trail mix, which the girl picked at unenthusiastically. Cassandra was pretty sure the girl ate a few pieces and knew she had to settle for these small steps towards progress.

What choice did she have?

Cassandra used to measure her self worth by her academic accomplishments, her parent's approval, her stupid rowing trophies when she was younger. If she closed her eyes and concentrated she could still recall snatches of that life, those feelings, those sensations. The crisp resistance of the water against her oars. Applause. The weight of her undergraduate diploma clutched tightly in her fingers. Internships. Fellowships. Research and writing, always writing, writing, writing. Her mother's cool fingers brushing against her cheek. Her father's firm handshake. Awards. Plans for the future.

_Look at me now._ _Convinced a three year old to eat something. Survived encounter with would be murderer and crazy ass redneck. Pretty successful day by my new standards._

Cassandra sighed and brushed her hand lightly over Emma's hair, ghosting her fingers down the side of the girl's face with barely there pressure. The girl flinched but allowed the contact.

"I'm doing my best, Emma," Cassandra whispered, turning her face to the truck's window and the world beyond. "I know it's not even close to enough in the middle of all this shit, but I'm trying."

She knew she had to come up with a plan for the rest of the day but she wasn't sure she had it in her. She was so tired and her body ached so much with each breath. Not that it mattered.

_When in doubt, just go._

She knew she needed to make a decision about which direction they were going to head. She'd been planning to continue heading west but after finding the map and realizing they were most likely just outside of Atlanta had her doubting that course of action. She figured they would have to backtrack and find some way to bypass the city even though that was the last thing she wanted to waste time doing. She'd never had a great sense of direction and now that they were well and truly on their own she wasn't especially confident in her ability to navigate them safely through roads that were sure to be as choked with cars and corpses as this one was.

_When in doubt, just go._

"Ok, Emma," She pulled the truck's key out of her pocket and glanced over at her companion trying to sound enthusiastic rather than just plain scared. "Ready to head out?"

The girl merely met her gaze for a split second and then dropped her expressionless gaze to her lap. Cassandra tried to block out her disappointment and inserted the key into the ignition, smiling slightly as the engine roared to life.

She reached over and with a little bit of a struggle to do so one handed snapped the seatbelt down over Emma's waist. Satisfied that the girl was more or less secure she turned her attention to the situation at hand.

A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed Cassandra that this was going to be a little more difficult than pulling out of a parking space in the student lot back at school. There were several other cars crowded around the immediate area as well as a smattering of random objects. She thought that she had enough room for a three-point turn to get herself turned around if she was very, _very_ careful.

She eased the truck into reverse and eased her foot off of the brake allowing the vehicle to coast backwards slowly.

_So far so good._

She pumped the break, switched to drive and got the truck at a slightly better angle. She was just easing the truck around towards the direction she wanted to be facing when a loud noise sounded that had both girl's jumping out of their skin.

Emma let out a sharp cry, and both her hands went up to cover her little ears, her eyes wide and fearful.

Cassandra for her part slammed on the brake and found herself reaching instinctively for the knife she'd been given earlier. It took a few seconds for her brain to catch up with the situation and realize that it hadn't been a gunshot but the sound of air expelling from one of their tires.

_No!_

She felt fear and dread settle over her like a too warm blanket, stifling her ability to breathe and think. She didn't want to have to scavenge for another car with gas, didn't want to stay here any longer, didn't want to think about what that noise might have attracted to them…

She forced herself to put the truck in park, reach over and pat Emma's shoulder in as comforting a manner as she could manage, and take a few deep breathes.

Cassandra gathered herself for one more moment, gripped her new knife as tightly as she dared, and then opened the door and slid back out of the truck as quietly and gently as possible. Her caution didn't stop a hiss of pain from escaping when her right foot made contact with the asphalt but she was fairly certain she hadn't been loud enough to attract any unwelcome visitors.

_Not that it mattered. Not after what just happened. _

She limped over to the rear passenger's side tire and saw that her fears weren't unfounded. The tire hadn't just been punctured it had all but exploded after she had driven over what appeared to have once been some kind of liquor bottle but now was little more than shiny jagged pieces and a puddle of mocking liquid.

_Could have used a drink. _

Cassandra couldn't help but smile a little at the thought. She remembered a world where that would have been funny. Not exactly irony by the official definition but by the Alanis Morissette version surely.

A low groan and shuffling, dragging sound startled her from her thoughts and Cassandra whipped around on instinct, pressing her back flush against the side of the truck. She wanted to just stay there, hope wherever the dead freak was it would just shuffle on by without noticing her. A quick glance back the way she'd come though revealed that she'd left the driver's side door open and she knew right away that passive hiding wasn't an option.

_Emma!_

Her mind was running amuck with fear and she did her best to tamp down on it without much success.

_Please stay still, stay quiet, please! _

She sent out mental instructions to the little girl, praying that she didn't decide now was a great time to start speaking or in some other way draw attention to herself.

Forcing her gasping breaths to slow and trying to be as mindful of the limitations of her injured body as possible, Cassandra poked her head around the back of the truck and saw the zombie was already too close for comfort. It was about two car lengths away and what was more it wasn't alone. A little further down the road were at least five more, ambling towards their position, bumping into things as they came. From this distance they didn't look that intimidating but she knew better. She'd seen what five of these things could do before. What one of them could do.

She couldn't stop the small sound of fear that escaped at the sight before her and clenched her teeth together in an effort to stop herself from revealing their position.

Cassandra began to slowly shuffle herself, easing her away around the side of the truck towards the open door and Emma. Her body was tense, every second expecting the nearest zombie to notice her but somehow luck was yet again on her side and she made it around to the other side without incident.

"Emma!" She hissed, reaching the open door. The girl was huddled over on the far side of the cab, eyes wide, seatbelt still buckled.

"Damn it," Cassandra whispered reaching in and triggering the release on the seatbelt with a solid click.

She didn't have time to look up and see if the zombie had noticed the noise but if the sounds were any indication the answer was yes.

"Emma, come here, now!" Cassandra reached in desperately but the girl only shrank back further. "Shit, come _on_, please!"

Suddenly another arm was reaching towards the open door and this one was covered in rotting flesh.

"Arghhh," Cassandra sputtered flying backwards on instinct to put more distance between herself and the creature before her.

Perhaps sensing a weaker target, the zombie ignored her for the time being and reached towards the little girl in the truck, its teeth snapping grotesquely as skin hung loosely from its chin.

This finally seemed to wake Emma from her stupor and now the girl was _screaming_, a wordless, agonized wail that had all of the other zombies shuffling towards them quickly.

"Oh God," Cassandra's voice was shaky but then so was every inch of her aching body.

The truth was her instinct in that moment was to turn and run. Even injured she was pretty fast, she thought if they were distracted she could probably make it. She didn't know this girl. Not really. She hadn't asked for this. The girl didn't even like her, barely let her feed her, would probably end up starving anyway. This wasn't fair. She wasn't her mother. She wasn't _hers_.

_When in doubt just go. _

When she finally moved though it wasn't towards safety but towards the zombie that had managed to wrap what once must have been a hand around Emma's ankle.

"Leave her alone!" Cassandra shouted even though what was left of her rational brain knew that _thing_ was well beyond understanding her words.

Not stopping to come up with a more viable, _survivable_ plan, Cassandra launched herself at the zombie full force tackling it like she would any other attacker. She wrapped her arms around its throat and used her entire body weight to pull it back and away from Emma.

She hadn't counted on the zombie losing its balance, hadn't thought that far ahead, so she was unprepared when it toppled backwards taking her with it.

Cassandra hit the ground and felt all the air leave her body as her head once again connected with the concrete. She had no time to feel the pain though as the zombie on top of her thrashed, its teeth snapping close enough to her arms that she could feel its rancid breath. She struggled to hold it to her, preparing herself mentally for her inevitable death that was sure to follow until a thought shot across her mind so obvious that she wanted to laugh and cry and get the _fuck_ out from under this zombie.

She was holding the knife.

Cassandra untangled one arm from her chokehold on the zombie and tried to angle it towards the creature's head. The zombie was too strong though and threw its head back barely missing making contact with her own.

She released her grip on it entirely and shoved hard removing its weight from her for the split second she needed to get out from under it. She crawled a few inches away, every inch feeling like an eternity but she clearly wasn't moving her body fast enough. A disturbingly wet hand gripped her ankle and she kicked out hard out of instinct though it did nothing to dislodge her undead attacker.

Cassandra whipped her body over with all of her strength and brought the knife down, stupidly closing her eyes, her mind rebelling against what was happening. She heard rather than saw the impact of her knife with the zombie's skull. The hand on her ankle went limp and Cassandra let out a shuddering breath before opening her eyes and frantically kicking out at the now dead, _deader_ thing before her.

_Emma_.

Cassandra dragged herself to her feet, every inch of her protesting the action and limped as quickly as she could back to the truck. She could see the other zombies were closing in on their position, maybe four cars away now. She reached the still open door of the truck and reached one hand in towards the still cowering little girl.

She could only imagine what she looked like. By now her bruises must have been starting to show, she knew she'd felt blood drying on her face after her morning run in. She also knew she had to have gore and God knows what else all over her after rolling around with a rotting corpse.

"Emma, come now," She said firmly, adrenaline and urgency lending a steadiness to her voice that implied a calmness she sure as hell didn't feel.

And now, _finally_ _now_, Emma didn't hesitate. She slid across the seat, out of the truck and into Cassandra's waiting arms. Her little arms went around Cassandra's neck and her face instantly buried itself in the older girl's blonde hair.

Cassandra placed one hand on the girl's back holding her more securely, feeling the rushing thump of the little girl's frantic heartbeat. She clutched the knife tighter in her free hand and glanced behind her at the seemingly unending woods than back at the ever approaching zombies.

_When in doubt…go._

Cassandra turned away from the road and took off at a sprint she didn't know she still had in her towards the waiting trees, hoping against reason that she could disappear into their depths as easily as her mystery man had managed to.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Ok, so I'm finally back! I wanted to update a lot sooner but my life has been insane the last few weeks. I'm still going to grad school and working then last weekend I went to New York to visit my sister and just got out before all the storm craziness. One of my classes ended Friday, so hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly now. Fingers crossed! Enjoy and let me know what you think.**

_The sky was the kind of cloudless, bright blue that really required sunglasses but always left Cassandra squinting up happily, eager to observe the unshielded beauty even if she could only do it through the slits between her eyelids. The well-manicured grass surrounding the river was a green right out of the crayon box, and whether its beauty was aided by earth killing chemicals or not the effect was still breathtaking. The breeze was perfect, the water calm, the energy from the crowd practically buzzing along each and every one of Cassandra's nerves leaving her with a pleasantly antsy feeling, in control and yet giddy enough to turn cartwheels. A quick glance confirmed that not only her mother but her father too was in place to watch her race. Her father was present for the final crew race of the season not only through his traditional good luck phone call but physically, and if he was currently on his cell phone at least he was there. _

_Then it was time and Cassandra was taking her place inside the boat with her teammates, their unspoken energy and unity leaving no doubt in her mind about what would happen next. The signal comes and then they're moving, gliding so seemingly effortlessly across the water that it hardly appears as though they're rowing at all. It feels more like flying. Cassandra's muscles feel no pain despite their exertion and she revels in the fact that her body is at its peak doing exactly what it has been trained to do. Then it's over and there is cheering and someone is hugging her and she doesn't know who but her father has hung up his cell phone and he's smiling and this, this right here is the best feeling in the world. _

Cassandra's foot connected hard with a tree root and she stumbled, almost tumbling to the ground with Emma's extra weight pulling her ruthlessly in that direction. She managed to catch herself but her body protested loudly at the effort. Emma whimpered and Cassandra almost joined her as she forced her weak right leg to take her weight and propel her forward.

She's been running for at least a couple of hours, the zombies ambling after them, making far better progress than she was weaving between the trees. Her only thought as she forced her body to continue was that she needed to head _up_. Zombies didn't get tired like she did but the increasingly steep landscape would surely slow them down a little. They did seem to be falling behind slightly, probably due to the unstable ground beneath their feet. In fact a few of them seemed to have lost interest and wandered away, possibly after animals that proved to be less work. There only looked to be two left, following the girls with unrelenting dedication. But the increasing altitude was also doing no favors to Cassandra's burning lungs or throbbing muscles. She had no idea how she'd been able to keep going for as long as she had other than the fact that pure primal terror wouldn't let her stop, not until her body had absolutely nothing left and she stopped for good.

There was a time when her body had been a fine tuned machine, muscular arms, a heart built for cardio, endurance to match the best of them. High school was a long time ago though, nearly six years, and she'd never taken a beating before competing in a crew race. Nor had the consequence of losing a race ever before meant being eaten alive by the undead. And some people said things never changed…

Cassandra could feel the pain in her limbs starting to fade out, leaving behind a blissful sort of numbness that was an intense relief until she realized it wasn't exactly easy to run and navigate a less than even landscape when you couldn't feel your legs. She felt dizzy and disconnected from her body, and dots were beginning to swim in front of her vision.

_No_.

_Not now._

_Not after all this._

_I'm sorry, Emma._

_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. _

Cassandra stumbled again, one hand struggling to maintain her grip on Emma, the other groping against the rough bark of a tree to keep her from hitting the ground. Cassandra let her back rest against the tree for a moment, observing in an almost detached manner how near the zombies were to catching up to them. She pulled a silently protesting Emma from around her neck and placed the girl on the ground. Pushing her with what little strength she had left in the direction that the ground continued to climb. _Up_.

_She's not tired yet. _

_Maybe she can make it._

_At least a little longer…_

"I need you to run, Emma," Cassandra murmured, surprising herself with how broken and quiet her voice came out. "Just keep going up, ok, Emma? Just keep going up."

To her surprise the girl seemed to understand her words and took a few stumbling steps on her shaky little legs in the direction that Cassandra was pointing. With one look back at the older girl she began to run and Cassandra closed her eyes with relief.

She was so tired, was so, so tired that she couldn't even muster up much fear or despair at the prospect of losing her life in a few precious moments. She knew she had wanted to live, had wanted to live so badly not that long ago. She could only feel it vaguely now, from a distance, as if it was her wish for a pony at the age of 5. Sure it would be nice, but it was ridiculous, a fairy tale and if it didn't come true, well that would be alright. It would have to be.

She slumped further against the tree, allowing it to take all of her weight as she slid down to the ground. She kept her eyes closed even as she heard the moans and shuffling footsteps of the zombies approaching her. She couldn't see them this way. She didn't want to see them.

Instead she pictured a sky so blue that it hurt to look at it. Grass so green that it looked like it came straight out of a crayon box. Water, and oars, and her father's smile.

She can feel her own lips twisting upwards into what she thinks must have been her own attempt at a smile when suddenly her peace is interrupted by a crushing sound that didn't belong anywhere near the world of her dreams.

"Whoa, you don't look so good," a male voice came from just above her and Cassandra thought she should probably open her eyes and see if he was really there.

She managed to get her eyes open just a crack and through a haze of streaky vision she was able to make out the distorted face of a young Asian guy, probably a year or two younger than her, with a bloody baseball bat dangling loosely from one hand.

"You should talk," She mumbled, her voice sounding completely unfamiliar to herself at this point. "You're the one who looks all…wobbly."

She let her eyes slide closed again even as she felt arms sliding under her neck and knees and the comforting solidness of the ground disappearing from underneath her.

After that there was nothing, just the less than gentle swaying that surrounded her body and the memories of a world before zombies that she drifted in and out of until at last she was on solid ground again.

There were a chorus of voices around her, none of them familiar, all of them grating.

"Emma?" She managed to choke out, her voice so soft and the background noise so deafening she wasn't sure if anyone could possibly have heard her at all. "Emma?"

She gathered all of her remaining strength and forced her eyes to open slightly, not sure if she was really awake or not when the familiar face of her mystery man swam into view.

"You robbed me," She muttered, her eyes slowly sliding closed again.

"Yeah, and you look like shit," He said, his squinting eyes the last thing she saw before she sank into total, heavenly oblivion.


End file.
